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Monday, March 5, 2018

Patriots on the Frontier #georgiapioneers #georgiaancestors

Patriots on the Frontier

John Smith, Rifleman, had a home in the new State of Franklin, which is located today in Sinclair County Tennessee. You might say that this was one of the worst places in America to reside prior to the Revolutionary War. During the 1730s, however, settlement was encouraged in the Alleghany mountains of North Carolina and Virginia, and land grants issued for that purpose. Settlers of Scotch-Irish and German origin poured into the regions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the North Carolinas. From there, they traveled the Wilderness Road through the Alleghany Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina. The opposition which they met, especially from Shawnee Indian tribes was in the form of thieving, scalping and taking white women as slaves. The determination of Chief Cornstalk to eliminate the Europeans from settling this region of the country pushed the Governor of Virginia into a war, wherein ordered all the Virginia Militia to meet Cornstalk at the Falls of the Ohio River where the rapids dropped the river level about 25 feet in length for 2-1/2 miles. However, only two Militia Companies arrived in time, viz: both from Botetourt County, Virginia. As soon as the Europeans crossed the river, Cornstalk charged. Both sides had many casualties, however, eventually Cornstalk signed a Treaty which he did not keep. Thus, before the Revolutionary War, John Smith and others removed their families to Georgia. Several years later when the war came, he enlisted into service as a rifleman, and after the war received land grants in Wilkes County. Smith had about fifteen children. One son, Alexander, served as a Minute Man during the War. He was married to Sarah Franklin whose family had also left the Alleghanies. Their son, Davis Smith,born 1791 in Washington County, Georgia was married first to Hannah Tuttle who gave him two sons who died as infants, both of whom were named after the patriot and Revolutionary War Soldier, William Franklin, his grandfather. Hannah soon died. Then, Davis Smith married again and purchased farm land in Monroe County. In 1850, when more